The two wounded men are Israelis in their 20s, police spokesman Lars Thede said. He said it was too early to speculate on whether they were targeted because of their nationality.

One of the wounded was shot in the arm and the other in the leg, police said. Their condition is unclear.

The shooting took place at the Rosengaard mall in Odense, 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Copenhagen. It occurred around 3:30 p.m. (14:30 GMT), when the mall was filled with people doing last-minute shopping before the New Year's break.

Thede said a video surveillance camera showed a man in his mid-20s pulling out a gun before opening fire.

"We cannot say whether he is Palestinian, Iraqi or where he is from," he said. "It is too early to say whether this has something to do with what happens elsewhere."

Alem Dervisevic, an eyewitness, told TV2 that he thought fireworks were going off when the shooting occurred.

But then we saw gun rounds on the floor, we saw people running and shouting, Dervisevic told TV2. "I saw blood and a man lying down near Kvickly (supermarket) and ambulance people picking him up."

The men, who were selling hair-care products, had been harassed by a group of youths in recent days, Denmark's Ritzau news agency said.

According to the B.T. newspaper's Web site, a man shouted something in another language and opened fire. Another Israeli inside the hairdressing shop threw a chair at the gunman, the newspaper said.

The shooter escaped in a dark vehicle.

The Foreign Ministry believes that the attack was related to anger over Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip.

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